Bigg Pimpin'

You shoulda been with me last Saturday. I was at Diddy's house for his birthday out on Star Island," says local music impresario Bigg D. He leans back in the leather seat of his new Bentley as he drives south on I-95. "You ever eat lunch at Tootsies?" he asks. The car's sound system vibrates as he pulls up to the valet station in front of the famous strip club.

"Ah, Bigg D," says a grinning valet as the six-foot-eight, 280-pound, bald-headed giant opens the car door and steps out, adjusting his diamond bracelet. Patrons glare at the black Bentley as sunlight reflects from its dark tinted windows. "We'll eat lunch here, have a drink, and then head over to the studio," he says. Two strippers lead Bigg D upstairs to the club's "Skybox" section, where he is seated at a reserved VIP table. "I tell a lot of young people comin' up in this game, man, don't ever give up," he says, sitting down. "Don't ever feel like you not gonna achieve. You know what I'm saying? God will just flip it like that, and I'm a spiritual person. I'm the type of person that ... I know in myself that I am supposed to be successful, because that is the path God has set for me. I don't want to be number two. I want to be number one. That is exactly how I look at this whole game."

Songwriter and producer Derrick "Bigg D" Baker was born and raised in Liberty City. His career as a professional musician began in the early Eighties, when he played back-up guitar for Grammy-winning gospel and R&B artists like Shirley Caesar and BeBe and CeCe Winans. In the late '90s and early '00s, he began producing local rap artists like Trick Daddy, Trina, and Pitbull. Today he's responsible for the music of numerous Billboard chart toppers. "I have made hits for Jamie Foxx ['Unpredictable'], Jennifer Lopez ['Wrong When You're Gone'], Pretty Ricky ['Grind on Me'], Mike Jones ['Cutty Buddy'] ... the list goes on. I call the studio my laboratory. You'll see."

He has pulled the hottest names in the business together for collaborations: Jamie Foxx and Ludacris, Chris Brown and Kanye West. Most recently he produced the hit song "Hello Brooklyn" on Jay-Z's American Gangster, featuring a collabo between Hova and Lil Wayne. "It's the first record Jay-Z and Lil Wayne ever did together — two of the biggest artists in the game right now. To me that is an ultimate achievement. There are a lot of producers in this world that would've loved to do that.

"I'm gonna tell you something I've never told nobody," he continues. "I gave this record to Fabolous, and he declined. Then I gave it to this upcoming artist Lil Mama, and she declined it. You are blessed to get a song to not only the right artist but to Jay-Z and Lil Wayne. Think about it. You know? My management [Hustla, Inc.] also works with Scott Storch. They take the beats I make and shop them to different labels and A&Rs. The artist may hear something they like and write something for it. That's how it's really done. This game is just so competitive."

Asked how he brings artists of that magnitude together, he says, "It's really God's doing. When I finished that particular beat, I knew it was for Jay-Z, but he already had a new album, so we couldn't get it to him. Me and Wayne, we work together on a lot of projects.... We are currently working on a rock and roll album together. Every time I see Wayne, I give him a beat CD. Wayne reminds me of Tupac — he can rap on anything."

Scantily clad women wearing dark red lipstick begin to form a semicircle around the table. "I've always been a fan of Jay-Z, same with Kanye West," D says. "God just sets it up like that. I gave Chris Brown one of my beats. While he was working on it, Kanye walked into the studio and they started working on it together. I had nothing to do with none of that. Kanye walked in the room and said he wanted to get on the record. I wasn't even there, but I got the call."